Near You (Also Entitled Colors)
by Subtle Shenanigans
Summary: "Roses are red, sadness is blue; Violet is normal, but I'm pink when near you." One-sided Oh/Tip 'cause I wanted to do my own explanation of Boovian colors, and I needed the ship. UNBETA'D.


**A/N: So, I'm** _ **really**_ **into the Home/Smek Series (by Adam Rex) fandom. I love the characters, the world they reside in, and the one-sided Oh/Tip that was most definitely shown in the movie.**

 **This is an explanation of Boovian color-emotions, so enjoy.**

 _ **Sacrifice**_ **and** _ **The North**_ **should be updated sometime in January – hopefully.**

 **DISCLAIMER:** Me? Own _them_? Only this story construct, sorry.

 _Near You_

" _ **Roses are red, sadness is blue, violet is normal, but I'm pink when near you." –**_ (Random poem by me; Boov-centric)

Gratuity "Tip" Tucci had learned long ago that the Boov were peculiar creatures.

Their English was a broken, fractured thing, how they raised their offspring was (by a human standpoint) almost sad, and their inventions downright strange. But it was how they conveyed emotions that she found the most bazaar.

Humans – if you were neurotypical, at least – could read each other and were easy to tell with. A lilt in the voice, a scrunch of the brow, maybe a particular gleam in the eye – all these fell together to form a specific emotion. The 'purpose of the face' could be found and fit, like words in a sentence.

But Boov conveyed emotions in a broader spectrum that couldn't be narrowed down by expressions. They showed their emotions by – wait for it – color. _Color!_ It was actually pretty cool, but really hard to understand at times.

Now, the basics were pretty easy – but that was mostly because Boov showed emotion in a broader spectrum than humans. Sh'd figured out quite a few during the invasions. First, she'd learned that the Boov turned green when lying (though it wasn't the first emotion she'd encountered; Oh had turned yellow back when they'd surprised each other in the MoPo, which she had learned meant a negative form of surprise and fear). All shades of anger were red; a no-brainer. And sadness with all its associates was blue – only shown rather than felt.

It was the broader ones that confused her. For instance, Orange. It could be excitement, elation, joy, great happiness, and/or a positive form of surprise. Then there were colors and tones for emotions she didn't understand. Namely, pink.

She wanted to say _happy_ or _content_ but she knew that wasn't quite it. It was something _deeper_ that she didn't fully understand, and it frustrated her to no end. But she wasn't one to give up, and she knows she will find it out someday, or her name wasn't Gratuity.

 **LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK**

JLo (known in – originally – disdain by the Boov as "Oh", but called so by his friend in fondness) was having a hard time controlling his emotions.

Now, the Boov were generally known for their openness in emotion – one only didn't comment out of politeness. It was hard for them to not share them since they blared like traffic lights whenever they felt something.

Oh was mostly known for his Orange (for he was a joyful spirit and the wonderfulness of his friends and the humans made each day something to look forward to, in his eyes) and more recently his green. They days he experienced were breathtaking and special; but how could they _not_ be when he had Tip for a best friend, genuine Boov friends in Kyle and Smek (though the latter will protest to that), a family, and best of all, a Home for all these things physically and in his heart? Every day was a breath of fresh air, a new start. _Life_ made him elated. It was a wonder that he wasn't permanently orange.

Now Green was more frequent than before. He wasn't given to lying; Rather, he avoided it. But lately he'd been doing so to avoid embarrassment, though he felt bad about it.

Pink wasn't a common form of emotion among the Boov. It was so _un_ common that even Oh wasn't quite sure what it meant; he knew he felt it among the Tuccis, both Tip and Gratuitymom (he didn't always call her 'Mimom' in more recent days, though it did happen). But there was one major difference between the two.

He felt it especially around Tip.

Oh was fairly certain he'd figured out what it was - the thing the Humanspeople called _affection_. It was the best term he could think of, and the broadest. It was a wide emotion he felt. It was happy, at times angry, sad at or for, and it came in different degrees. At the least, he knew he felt it _much_ stronger for Tip than Mimom.

It had been there since they'd started to work with one another - though grudgingly, since Tip had hated the Boov then - and it had bloomed as they'd bonded after Paris and the troubles they'd shared with one another. They were outsiders, those that 'fit out', lone wolves packed together through their similar oucasteries.

When he'd left Earth that time, seeing the planet, seeing _her_ left behind to the doom of one, despaired Gorg (though he didn't know as much at the time) he'd felt it. All that was left between them anger and hurt, both caring too much for different reasons that pushed them apart. It's why he had turned back. What he'd felt as the ships harvesting blades tore closer, and he knew he would die; that the only hope for her and their people was that Tip would know what to do when he threw her the rock; the right thing like he knew she would. It was what he felt when he thought of her kindness and bravery, her fierceness and things that made her so _Tip-_ like…

He saw his reflection flush bright pink and flow across his body. The mirror showed him the almost fuchsia-color as it stayed, then faded like a cooling anvil. He was in her (technically their) room, in front of the closet-door-mirror (why humanspeople made them like that Oh would forever ponder). He was trying to figure out the Pink color and what exactly it was as best as he could. All he knew was that only certain... _contemplations_ of Tip turned him that color, and he was certain it was affection.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, and the portly calico she-cat named Pig came up and rubbed against his pods. She purred vigorously as he bent down and pet her, murmuring, "Hey, Pigcat."

He then chuckled, thinking, _Glad am I that I don't purr like a catsperson - this "affection" is so closely linked with my happiness that it would gives me even_ more _of the embarrassment._

Oh was happy he felt this way though. Even if Tip didn't experience the same type of affection he had for her, she felt some form of affection, and he wouldn't trade it for any world. She was everything to him; his first true friend, his _best_ friend. His family. She represented everything to him - when he was with her he felt like he truly was home.

A door opening jolted him out of his thoughts, along with the exclamation of, "Oh! I'm home from school! Let's get my homework finished - you will _not_ believe what happened today!" He glanced at the mirror and _willed_ the newly resurrected pink to go away. He felt relief, and a little regret when it did. Then he perked up again as Tip entered into the room, exclaiming with bright eyes and a wild smile the travesties and adventures that had occured at school. He listened eagerly, one thought prominent in his mind.

JLo "Oh" cared for Gratuity "Tip" Tucci - and she knew so. It was enough for him.


End file.
